Mood of the Nation

 

 

Cong holds ground in season of doubt

The TSI-C VOTER survey on Mood of the Nation surprisingly augurs well for the Congress party and the UPA-II dispensation that it leads. No body would have thought of this outcome considering the ever-increasing price burden put on people and the ever-growing Maoist influence in various states of the country. What perhaps has not been surprising is the dismal perception about the main Opposition BJP. It seems the Saffron party is failing its responsibility of acting as a credible counterweight to the Congress or so feel the respondents.

The face of the country, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, has had a thumbs up from the respondents with 45 per cent calling his performance good and 33 per cent average as against only 18 per cent rating him poor. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about current Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj with 34 per cent people terming her work as poor, 31 per cent average and only 20 per cent good. NDA supremo and once-talismanic L.K.Advani seems down in the pits with 44 per cent respondents calling his performance poor as against 29 per cent average and only 18 per cent terming his work good. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has got favourable response too, with 46 per cent marking her performance good and 29 per cent average as against 20 per cent calling her work poor. About 53 per cent of the respondents feel that Congress scion Rahul Gandhi should be made the Prime Minister and 43 per cent say he is a ray of hope for Indian politics.

The current Central government has fared well according to 30 per cent of the respondents where as 42 per cent termed its performance average with 26 per cent saying it is poor. The feel good factor, however, abandons the Congress when people vent their opinion on price rise. Most, at 33 per cent, hold the black market responsible while 30 per cent say the Centre is responsible. State governments have nearly been absolved of their responsibilities for the same. About 15 per cent of the people surveyed say that the Congress fared well in the Lok Sabha elections in spite of the price rise as people did not trust the Opposition. Another 16 per cent say the Congress alone is not responsible for the rising prices while 9 per cent say the Opposition failed to turn price rise into a raging election issue.

Most people (41 per cent) feel that internal politics of BJP is responsible for its failure to act as a good Opposition party while 19 per cent blamed lack of coordination between other Opposition parties for the mess.

On inclusion of the contentious caste category in Census, public opinion is evenly divided for and against. The survey throws up curious statistics on people's awareness about different bills discussed in Parliament. Where as 37 per cent are aware of the names of a few bills tabled in Parliament, only six per cent are aware of the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill. Only three per cent of the respondents were familiar with the Prevention of Torture Bill. Methodology

The Mood of the Nation opinion poll has been carried out with a national representative sample of 8,721 randomly selected respondents. The survey was done with CVoter's specially designed Computer Assisted Telephonic Interviews (CATI) process across 180 Lok Sabha seats. The survey was conducted in April-May 2010. The data received has been weighted to India's Census profile. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 per cent. As part of our Mood of the Nation initiative, CVoter is now keeping weekly track of the pulse of the people and what India’s rural and urban masses are thinking and feeling about local and national governance. This is being facilitated by CVoter's Weekly Omnibus wherein our researchers quiz voters for their perception about the performance of the country’s political leaders. They also keep a tab on the contemporary issues that matter to the masses. We hope that the initiative will not just help voters make their voices heard but will also hopefully serve as a weekly reminder to the nation’s political bosses about the immediate and long-term needs and ambitions of the voters who brought them to power in the first place. SCORE: 0=Worst & 10=Best

-6.58

Are you satisfied with the performance of the Central government? How would you rate the current government's performance?

6.39

Are you satisfied with the performance of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh? How would you rate his performance?

5.13

Are you satisfied with the performance of the Leader of Opposition, Sushma Swaraj? How would you rate her work?

6.59

Are you satisfied with the performance of the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi? How would you rate her work?

4.73

Are you satisfied with the performance of NDA Chief L.K.Advani? How would you rate the leader's performance?